The University of Manitoba recently held a New Orleans-style jazz funeral for its mainframe, whose nickname was Betelgeuse. The event included a pinata seen here that employees had some fun bashing.

Though the story, reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s radio division, doesn’t mention what it’s doing with the mainframe and what will be replacing it (the university’s site only says something about “25 servers”), the funeral itself is pretty hilarious. Here’s a quote from the “eulogist” in the story:

For 47 years, you served us well,
You cast us in your green-screen spell,
You processed transactions without complaint,
We’ve asked the Pope to make you a saint.

The university had been running a mainframe since 1960, when it bought an IBM 650. It then cycled through about 10 different machines, finishing up with an Amdahl Millennium 1015.

The full mainframe timeline, eulogy and funeral procession route are also on the university’s Web site.